Illuminated decorations have long been used to celebrate the holiday season. In particular, the presence and display of light strings, ornaments, and other illuminated decorations is an indicator that the holiday season has arrived, and creates a feeling of nostalgia. Christmas is most well known for being the time when lighted decorations are used, although lights are also traditionally used during other holidays such as Halloween and New Years. Lights and illuminated ornaments are used by themselves but are also presented together with other non-illuminated decorative elements.
Holidays are not the only time people use lighted strings and ornaments for decorative effect. For example, light strings are often placed on or near trees, buildings, lampposts, sidewalks of major thoroughfares, store windows, and other general places of assembly such as ice skating rinks Thus, lights and illuminated ornaments are used for decoration purposes all year round, both indoors and outdoors.
There are various kinds of illuminated decorations. The lights can be assembled on a string with each light a fixed distance apart from the next light. Alternatively, the decoration can be a lighted ornament. An ornament can itself be any number of things, including spheres or cubes, animals or animal-like characters (e.g., Santa Claus, elves, reindeer, snowmen, etc.) or any number of objects (e.g., sleds, trees, candy canes, etc.).
Traditionally, the lights and lighted decorations can have different lighting modes. For instance, instead of the lights being continuously illuminated, they can also be blinking on and off at set time increments. Additionally, the lights can be configured using a timer, such that they are on continuously or blinking but then set to turn off after a fixed number of minutes or hours. This way the lights can be used as decoration during the evening, but then are set to turn off after several hours to conserve energy.
Several configurations of ornament displays are possible. The ornaments themselves can be illuminated by being comprised of several lights or by just one light. Ornaments can have different sizes. If spherical, the ornaments can range from about the size of a golf ball (1.7 inches in diameter) to as large as a cage ball (72 inches in diameter) and everywhere in between (baseball, volleyball, basketball) although they can be larger or smaller and can be any shape. The corresponding triangular or rectangular ornaments can be of that approximate size as well.
The source of power for these lights, if not plugged into an electrical outlet, is typically a battery or battery pack comprising one or more batteries. Ornaments with exterior battery packs are known, but they have a form factor that can be difficult to handle, and are not aesthetically pleasing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,312 describes an ornament containing a hollow shell such that lights are placed inside of the ornament in order to illuminate the ornament. The ornament is powered using conventional AC power from a wall outlet. U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,620 describes an improvement of a water-draining passage structure of a lamp set for an ornament. While '620 describes a water-draining passage structure, it does not describe a water proof ornament containing a water-proof battery capsule comprising a battery pack whose configuration enables a plurality of lighting modes. U.S. Pat. No. 6,547,414 describes an underwater flashlight comprising a water-proof battery pack which can be removably changed underwater. While '414 describes a flashlight containing a water-proof battery pack, it does not describe an illuminated decorative ornament comprising a water-proof battery capsule comprising a battery pack which enables various lighting configurations including full-on, blinking-on, and timer.